Graham Sonnenberg Attorney

29/03/2026

29/03/2026

Sunday lunch at super hostess Marlene Van der Westhuizen is always a gastronomical and a social treat. Marlene you are the hostess with the mostest.

01/01/2023

Old friends Carla Pinheiro and Robin Bristow visiting on new year’s day afternoon

02/08/2018

There is a first time for everything. I have notarised hundreds or maybe thousands of Antenuptial Contracts over the last 30 years. This lovely couple, Marcela Guerrero Casas and Dustin Kramer is the first to ask me to record the moment on camera, together with their witnesses, yesterday - 1 August 2018

01/04/2016

Conveyancing News and ViewsFriday, 01 April 2016 Search ArticlesRSS Feed Subscribe Contribute Home About Us Contact UsLAW REPORTS NEWObject properly31 March 2016
“The mere lodging of an objection, however ill-founded, does not trigger an obligation to furnish detailed reasons for the underlying decision relating to the valuation of the property” (extract from judgment below)
Your local municipality is entitled to revalue your property (with reference to recent sales of similar properties in your area) at regular intervals.
Of course any upward valuation means more money out of your pocket every month because the rates you pay are arrived at by multiplying your property’s municipal valuation with the municipality’s current “rates factor” as set by it in its budgeting process.
Municipal valuers must, at least every four years, prepare a general valuation roll with particulars of each property as at the date of valuation, and you must be given notice that you can lodge an objection.
This is of course your chance to convince the municipality that its valuation is wrong; just be sure to lodge your objection within the specified time limit, in the specified format, and with sufficient detail.
A terse exchange; and a botched objection
The recent High Court case of Coutsourides N.O. and Another v Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and Others (3565/2015) [2015] ZAECPEHC 66 shows clearly the danger of neglecting the part about giving enough detail –
A property owner Trust’s objection to a revaluation gave as the reason for objection: “Subject property has been vacant for 18 months. Market has declined therefore the market value of my property should also be reduced.”

The municipality dismissed the objection and, when asked for reasons, replied in equally terse fashion: “The information submitted by the objector is insufficient to justify a change in valuation.”

The trust asked the Court to order the municipality to give “adequate reasons” for dismissing the objection.
Give full reasons or fail

30/03/2016

First time home owners may qualify for a subsidy of between R20 0000.00 and R87 000.00 - see below

https://www.westerncape.gov.za/service/finance-linked-individual-subsidy-programme-flisp

The Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) is an instrument that assists qualifying households by providing a once-off down payment to those households who have secured mortgage finance to acquire a residential property for the first time.

14/03/2016

Below is a summary of the transfer tax rates from 01 March 2016.



Value of the property beeing transferred Transfer duty rate

R 0 - R 750,000 - No transfer duty

R 750,001 - R 1,250,000 - 3% of the amount above R 750,000

R 1,250,001 - R 1,750,000 - R 15,000 + 6% of the amount above R 1,250,000

R 1,750,001 - R 2,250,000 - R 45,000 + 8% of the amount above R 1,750,000

R 2,250,000 - R 10,000,000 - R 85,000 + 11% of the amount above R 2,250,000

Above R 10,000,000 - R 937,500 + 13% of the amount above R 10,000,000

29/12/2015

BUYING A PROPERTY FOR THE FIRST TIME?

If you are buying property for the first time, here are a few pointers:
• Know in advance how much bond finance you qualify for. A bond originator or home loans consultant at your bank will be able to advise you about this. It is no use putting in an offer for a property if you are not going to qualify for a high enough bond. You waste the sellers and the agent’s time and set yourself up for disappointment when the application is declined.
• When processing your home loan application, your credit record will be looked at. If you have a judgement against your name for an unpaid account or a court case you lost, your application will probably be declined. Make sure old judgement debts are settled and investigate having the judgement rescinded (reversed) before you purchase a property.
• Familiarise yourself with the market: Look around at show-houses or show-flats in the area you are keen to live in and get an idea of prices. Bear in mind that the asking prices and the final prices obtained are not the same, but at the moment there is a shortage of residential accommodation at the lower end of the market, so if your offer is too low, you may lose your dream home to somebody else who makes a better offer.
• Do your budgeting in advance. Unless you qualify for 100 percent bond, you will need to have saved or made alternative provision for portion of the purchase price. A deposit is not a legal pre-requisite but always makes an offer more attractive to a seller, as it shows commitment on the part of a potential purchaser. You will also have to pay transfer costs (the bulk of which consist of transfer duty charged by the state on the purchase price) and bond registration costs. These amounts are payable prior to your taking transfer (becoming owner) and cannot be paid off at a later stage, so get advice from an attorney or estate agent in advance as to how much you need to budget. If you don’t have the funds available when required, you may end up being in breach of contract and the seller may cancel the sale and hold you liable for damages (any loss suffered), which can have very costly consequences.
• If you are serious about a property, go back a second or third time to view it and take an objective outsider along. Be on the lookout for rotten timber, damp walls and signs of leaking roofs as these are tell tail signs of potential major expense. Ask as many questions as you like and most importantly of all, make sure that any special conditions or warranties (for example that the roof does not leak) or undertaking that items will be repaired by the seller, are inserted in the Deed of Sale and stipulate the time frame for such repairs. The wording must not be broad enough for the seller to undertake the repairs after the transfer has gone through. Verbal undertakings are not binding. Do not sign an Offer to Purchase unless and until any such conditions are inserted, as you will otherwise be agreeing to acquiring the property “voetstoots” (as it stands) with regard to pre-existing defects that are visible.
• If there are any movable items (such as bar stools or other items of furniture or pool cleaning equipment) which are included in the sale, make sure that the agreement clearly stipulates this, failing which the seller can remove such items. However fixtures and fittings of a permanent nature always go with the property (unless agreed otherwise in the sale agreement).
• If you are buying in a sectional title complex, ascertain the position regarding parking bays and visitors’ bays in advance. There is often a shortage of parking and this becomes a huge issue afterwards. If you are being sold the exclusive use rights to a parking bay or any outside area, make sure that your bay or area is clearly identifiable and stipulated in the sale agreement.
• If you have to give notice at a property you rent, give some attention to the dates of occupation and transfer so that you don’t end up paying rental and a bond instalment in the same month.
• If you want or have pets, check that they are allowed in the complex or if you need consent from the body corporate to keep them, insert this as a suspensive condition in the sale agreement.
• If you plan to do renovations or improvements to the property, bear in mind that you can only commence them once you have taken transfer. You may need prior consent from the body corporate and/or the City Council if the alterations are structural. Investigate in advance whether obtaining such consent it likely to be problematic to avoid ugly disputes at a later stage.

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Graham Sonnenberg is an attorney practising independently in Green Point and specialising in property, conveyancing, wills and estates, tel 021 4397709, e mail [email protected]

22/11/2015

WHAT DOES YOUR CONVEYANCER DO?
What is a property transfer and what does a conveyancer do?
A transfer means a transfer of ownership of a property, whether it be an erf (piece of land, which may or may not have a building or buildings on it), a farm or a sectional title unit/s. Ownership of all registered land in South Africa is recorded in one of the 10 Deeds Registries (or Deeds Offices as they are commonly referred to) in South Africa.
The transfer process consists of a number of steps and there are a number of Laws (The Deeds Registries Act, The Sectional Titles Act, The Municipal Systems Act, The Transfer Duty Act, The Value Added Tax Act and The Administration of Estates Act, among others) which have to be complied with during the course of the process.
A conveyancer (sometimes referred to as “transferring attorney”) is an attorney who has passed a separate examination. Only admitted attorneys can become conveyancers and only qualified conveyancers can sign the documentation required to be lodged at the Deeds Office to register property transactions and to appear before the Registrar of Deeds when a transfer is registered. Every day conveyancers from numerous law firms go to the Ex*****on Room at the applicable Deeds Office and sign the deeds (mostly transfers and mortgage bonds, but there are others, such as the opening of sectional title registers and subdivisions of land) in the presence of the Registrar of Deeds and/or his Assistant Registrars, one of whom then signs each deed. Ownership in law passes when the second signature is appended. At that point, transfer has taken place or has been registered.
Property transfers vary in that they are sometimes fairly quick and simple and sometimes more complicated, as they can be linked to a short or long chain of other transactions that have to be registered simultaneously. This happens when a number of parties each sell a property and each one is reliant on the sale proceeds of their property to pay for the property they have purchased.
The normal steps that have to take place for the usual property transfer are as follows:
• Conveyancer has to read the sale agreement thoroughly and familiarise himself with the terms contained in it.
• Conveyancer has to verify the full names and marital statuses of the parties and obtain F**A documents for all of these in compliance with the Financial Intelligence Centre Act.
• Conveyancer has to do a Deeds Office search verifying the correctness of the property description as contained in the sale agreement and checking that the Deeds Office records concur with the details of the parties as per the F**A documents obtained. Any errors in Deeds Office records or change of marital status of the parties has to be dealt with in the course of the transfer process or could lead to the Deeds Office rejecting the deeds, which delays registration.
• Conveyancer has to obtain a rates clearance certificate from the local authority (which is not always as simple as it should be and can cause delays). The seller has to pay all arrears and a 120 day advance payment in order to get the clearance.
• Conveyancer has to arrange the cancellation of the seller’s bond/s over the property and to arrange bank guarantees for the outstanding amount/s owed.
• Conveyancer has to check the conditions in the existing title deed and draft a new title deed, sometimes omitting conditions of title or adding new ones, a technical exercise outside the knowledge of the layman.
• Conveyancer sends a copy of the new draft title deed to the attorneys registering the new bond for the purchaser and supplies them with other information they require.
• Conveyancer’s paralegal usually drafts the transfer documents for signature by both parties which is then signed.
• Conveyancer collects transfer costs from the purchaser. The bulk of these costs is usually the transfer duty which the conveyancer has to pay to SARS, though if the transaction is vatable, there will be no transfer duty and the conveyancer obtains a transfer duty exemption. The conveyancer has to answer all queries raised by SARS, which are sometimes many.
• Conveyancer must obtain consents from the Body Corporate, Home Owner’s Association, Master of the High Court or any other consents which may be required.
• When the rates clearance certificate, the transfer duty receipt/exemption and any other required consents have been obtained, the conveyancer lodges the transfer at the Deeds Office for examination in conjunction (or “linked”) to the other transactions, typically the cancellation of the seller’s bond and the registration of the new bond, often each one being done by different firms of attorneys.
• The Deeds Office takes in the region of 12 to 14 working days to examine the documents. Notes (queries) may be raised, which the conveyancer has to answer, or if there is an important error, the batch may be rejected and must be corrected and re-lodged.
• Registration can take place once all of the above steps have been completed. The conveyancer will only register if the purchase price, transfer costs and any other amounts owing have been paid or secured by guarantee.
A straight forward transfer normally takes eight to ten weeks, but this can vary due to circumstances. For most people, your home is the largest and most important asset that you will ever own. Your rights and the value of your investment need to be protected, so it both makes sense and is the usual practice for the seller to choose the conveyancer. Some purchasers feel that as they are paying the costs of transfer, they should have the right to appoint the conveyancer, but unless the seller specifically agrees to this in the sale agreement, it is the seller’s prerogative to choose. My recommendation to sellers is to not agree to the purchaser appointing the conveyancer. As the owner (until transfer), it is in your best interests that the conveyancer is answerable first and foremost to you.
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Graham Sonnenberg is an attorney practising independently in Green Point and specialising in property, conveyancing, wills and estates, tel 021 4397709, e mail [email protected]